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Plantel male, "the only one that made the cut"

Plantel means “best of the breeding stock”. A plantel male in Peru means a male that has proven his genetics to be VERY prepotent and highly desireable.

In a discussion with one of the primary Peruvian importers, I learned an interesting story that I would like to share with readers.

By the time the 5Peruvian import rolled around, the American importers were starting to feel their oats. They KNEW what a great alpaca looked like , and they wanted to buy them. They were tired of getting Peru’s second hand males. They felt they had spent a lot of money in Peru and wanted serviced like the great customer that they were. They insisted to the Peruvian farms that they wanted to buy a “Plantel” male. They pointed out that “Look!, we have been paying you premium US dollars for your alpacas for years now, and we want a plantel male and we wont take NO for an answer”.

The Peruvians didnt say much but told the Americans to be at the ranch at 6am the next morning. They brought 3 plantel males for the Americans to buy. All three were gorgeous incredible males. 2 of them were white the other was maroon. The Americans were very pleased with themselves, licking their chops with their proud chests pumped out like peacocks. The importers started going thru their checklist of acceptable criteria for the import standards set forth by the Americans.

Since Plantel males were PROVEN older males, they had higher microns than what the minimum import standards allowed………..except for one………..5Peruvian Camelot………..the maroon male. Yes, he had maintained his fineness to pass the importation minimum standards.

In this case, the standards had ironically handicapped the Americans.

The other two incredible boys could not pass the critical , and shall we say “foolish” standard that did not take into consideration age.

To date, there is only 1 “true” Peruvian Plantel male that was ever imported into the US. Based on the success of his offspring , I would say the Peruvians had him labled correctly!